The Gospels

An Overview

1.
Introduction

The first four books
of
the New Testament are
referred to as the 'Gospels'. Of course there is only but one
Gospel, but what is meant is that these four books are accounts of the
earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ. But why four, and not say five?
Each book
is written from a different a perspective and to a different initial
audience. In them we see different aspects of the Lord's life
and
ministry emphasised.

1. Authorship and dates

The modern view
that the
gospels,
particularly the synoptics, were written quite late after the
events is designed to discredit the gospel accounts. Some place the
dating of the gospels 50-60 years after the crucifixion! The
traditional dating of the gospels still holds up
and has
yet to be disproved beyond doubt by those who question it. It
is
beyond the scope of this page to deal with the technical details, but
we will give an outline of the arguments for an early dating.For a more detailed study the reader is directed
to the book
Redating Matthew, Mark & Luke (Hodder
& Stoughton)
1991 John Wenham

1.2 Authorship

As far as authorship goes the testimony from
the second century is unanimous that the four gospels were written by
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The dating is early because we
know that the so called ' church fathers'
quoted from the NT in their writings. For example Clement of
Rome quoted the gospels in his letter to Corinth in 95 AD. Why does
this matter? Simply because if they were written
early we have first hand witness accounts of the
life of Jesus.

1.3 Dates

1.3a Luke

The key is
the
dating of Acts.
We know from the opening verses that it was written by the
same
person as the third gospel. This is accepted as being Luke the beloved
physician. Luke finishes his account when Paul was at Rome and
had spent two years there. He never mentions Paul's first
appearance before Nero (II
Tim.4:16)
as
Paul did in his letter to Timothy, let alone his martyrdom.

So we can
conclude that Acts was written c. AD 62.

This would also
mean that
the third gospel was written pre- AD 62.
Now
let us consider the following scripture:

For
the
scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the
corn. And, The
labourer is worthy of his reward.

I Tim. 5:18

Notice
that
Paul says that these two quotes are scripture! The first one is found
in Dt.
25:4.However where
is the second one to be found? The ONLY
place in our Bible where
this
is found is in Luke's Gospel!

And in
the same house remain,
eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is
worthy of his hire.
Go not from
house to house.

Lk.10:7

Thus we
conclude that at the time of the writing
of
I
Timothy, Luke's gospel was already in circulation and was accepted
by apostolic authority as being scripture.It
is also
believed
by some critics that the scripture below is a reference to
Luke
and
the third gospel:

And
we
have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel
throughout all the
churches;

II Cor. 8:18

If that be the
case
then we have a
mid AD 50s dating for Luke's gospel. So we can safely say
that
that the third gospel was written c. 50 - 60 AD,
giving a
wide margin
for error. But note it is still an early date!

1.3b Matthew & Mark

Matthew
and Mark can
not be dated by the internal evidence of the NT. unless one
takes
Luke's introduction as meaning
Matthew and Mark, we can
not determine if this be the case or not.

Forasmuch
as many have taken in hand
to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most
surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which
from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;

We
are
left to consider
external historic evidence; this
is technical and controversial . However
we note that
Eusebius,
a church historian, places Matthew at about 40 AD.
The
second
gospel account was , according to Eusebius, written
by
John
Mark under the direction of Peter whilst in Rome, which would
put
its
dating at c. 45 - 50 AD. The fourth gospel is
accepted as
being
written by John the apostle at the end of the first century.

Whilst acknowledging the debate
surrounding
the issue,
it is interesting to note that the above scenario was
accepted
until
the 19th. century.

2.
The
synoptics

The
first
three gospels are
called the synoptics, because they
give a similar view to the earthly ministry of the Lord
Jesus.
Because of this many academics have proposed that they used a same
source, called Q, in preparing their accounts. No such
document
has been found to date; in any case such discussion is
irrelevant
to the
message and is an unnecessary distraction anyway. The fact is that
these
books are inspired
and are
therefore part of God's written word.